Prosecutors are opposing an application to release taped conversations between accused child-killer Allan Schoenborn and the mother of the murder victims.Photo by
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KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Allan Schoenborn lives in isolation, shunned by his fellow inmates — so ostracized, he said, that even the prison chaplain avoids him.

In fact, what little social contact Schoenborn has may come through his memories of his children — the children he's admitted to killing.

"He said he zones out ... to be with his kids," said Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe, a psychiatrist hired by the Crown to examine Schoenborn for his murder trial.

Schoenborn is on trial for first-degree murder in the slaying of his three children, Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8, and Cordon, 5, in April 2008 in the B.C. Interior community of Merritt. Kaitlynne was stabbed to death while the two boys were smothered.

Lohrasbe said Schoenborn "spends a lot of time in his inner world where he communicates with his children.

"He says good morning, and good night to them, and mentions them in his prayers. He said he wants to join them in heaven."

Lohrasbe met with Schoenborn in prison in August and September. He said Schoenborn lives 23 hours a day in solitary confinement and only gets out for an hour of exercise.

"It is hard not to feel compassion for him. He spends a lot of time alone," said the doctor. "He is tormented by other inmates. He knows he is a pariah.

"In a particularly poignant moment, he said not even the (chaplain) wants to talk with him."

Schoenborn claims he killed his children to protect them from imagined sexual predators and abuse.

Lohrasbe said it is extremely difficult to determine what his motivation for the killings might have been, as the facts required to form such a conclusion come entirely from Schoenborn.

He said the human mind naturally reconstructs traumatic events, especially ones like this that are so irrational in nature.

"What possible explanation can you have as a human being for taking the life of your child? The choices are fairly narrow," said Lohrasbe.

Lohrasbe told court that one of the most common explanations offered by those who kill their children is a bent form of altruism: They meant to protect them from some kind of harm. And as a killer begins to process his actions, he said, he may attribute to himself altruistic motives which might not have been in his mind when the killings took place.

Schoenborn fled into the woods around Merritt after the killings, and wasn't caught until April 16. Experts did not get access to him for more than three weeks, the court was told.

In that time, Schoenborn had a lot of time to think about what happened, Lohrasbe said — time enough for his mind to reconstruct the killings in a way that accords with basic human nature and beliefs.

"That does not indicate Mr. Schoenborn is being consciously deceitful. It's just the way the human mind works," said Lohrasbe.

Schoenborn's B.C. Supreme Court trial is being heard by Justice Robert Powers without a jury.

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